Calendar:Requirements

User Requirements

The table below lists key requirements for a Calendar/PIM client reported by various sources. The requirements are based on both written and verbal feedback. For example, due to the fact that StarOffice used to include a calendar client and a calendar server up until version 5.2, many StarOffice and OpenOffice.org users have expressed their interest in alternative solutions at trade shows like CeBIT or LinuxWorld. In addition, in many cases the competitive situation makes a user demand obvious. The comments in the last column try to illustrate what users are looking for and what their problems are, from their perspective.

	OpenOffice.org Community (incl. former users of the StarOffice schedule server, Mozilla users)	StarOffice Customers (incl. former users of the StarOffice schedule server, former MS Outlook users)	Sun Comms Suite Customers	Sun Admins	Competition (MS Outlook & Exchange)	Competition (Palm Desktop)	Example Comments
Calendar Views
Day view	X	X	X	X	X	X	“It should be always visible on what day one is currently on.”
Week view	X	X	X	X	X	X
Month view	X	X	X	X	X	X
Modern look	X	X	X	X	X	X	“The calendar tool should have a modern look and feel.”, “The calendar client should either offer a completely new and compelling experience or be a 100% replacement that requires no re-training.”
Scrolling functionality	X	X	X	X	X	X	“Scrolling up and down in week view should not move the information what day it is out of the user's view. The “weekday names” should stay visible all the time.”, “The amount of required scrolling should be minimal.”
Keyboard navigation	X	X	X	X	X	X
Drag and drop support				X	X	X	“Dragging and dropping appointment info from email to calendar is a must.”, “It should be possible to drag calendar appointments to the attachments field of the email client.”
Definition of working hours	X	X	X	X	X	X
Definition of start day of the week	X	X	X	X	X	X
Viewing multiple calendars simultaneously			X	X	X		“View multiple calendars at once for easy scheduling”, “It should be very simple and fast to compare different calendars.”, “Managing several calendars should be easy (viewing, inputing/deleting appointments, comparing calendars for scheduling, etc.)”, “Comparing calendars and being able to insert the scheduled meeting on all calendars at the same time would be useful.”
Conflicts should be easily recognizable	X	X	X	X	X		“Conflicts should be displayed in a very obvious and explicit way, e.g. meeting slots displayed in grey and the overlapping/double-booked time displayed in much darker grey.”
Current day indicated in all views	X	X	X	X	X	X
Current day easily reachable	X	X	X	X	X	X
Month overview	X	X	X	X	X	X	“A 2-month view would be nice in order to quickly schedule meetings for the current and the next month.”
Month view synchronized with main view	X	X	X	X	X	X
Display of birthdays from address book		X	X	X	X
Display of multiple times zones		X	X	X			“Scheduling meetings with people in different timezones should be simple and transparent to the user.”
Server Integration
Appointment handling	X	X	X	X	X		“Admins should not have to use multiple calendar clients that are not integrated, i.e. the calendar client should support multiple types and instances of backend servers at the same time.”
Task handling	X	X	X	X	X
Invitations	X	X	X	X	X		“Inviting others to meetings should be simple and fast.”
Reminders	X	X	X	X	X
Free/busy display	X	X	X	X	X		“It should be possible to view all the available times from multiple users/calendars at the same time. Only the available times should be shown, not the full calendars.”
Free/busy search	X	X	X	X	X		“Scheduling meetings should not require waiting for email replies, e.g. for confirming a meeting”
Calendar subscriptions	X	X	X	X	X
Calendar groups	X	X	X	X	X
Access rights	X	X	X	X	X		“access to inboxes of other users on the same server (substitute/deputy definition)”
Tasks/To-do's
Specification of due dates	X	X	X	X	X	X
Specification of repeat patterns	X	X	X	X	X
Assignment of tasks	X	X	X	X	X
Transfer of tasks	X	X	X	X	X
Support for access rights	X	X	X	X	X
Appointments/Meetings
Title field	X	X	X	X	X	X
Date field	X	X	X	X	X	X	“Entering dates should be simple and intuitive, i.e. no tabs required between the day, the month and the year.”
Location field	X	X	X	X	X	X
Description field	X	X	X	X	X	X
Recurrence rules	X	X	X	X	X	X	“It should be possible to easily change appointments from “this appointment forward””, “It should be possible to enter recurring meetings which do not have an end date.”
End dates	X	X	X	X	X	X
Exceptions	X	X	X	X	X
Invitation of attendees from address book	X	X	X	X	X
Invitation of attendees from email list/alias	X	X	X	X	X
Email reminders	X	X	X	X	X		“Email notifications should be generated for meetings.”, “It should be possible to send reminders to oneself as well as others.”
Local alarm reminders	X	X	X	X	X	X	“Popup window/message box reminders as well as email reminders should be possible.”
PIM independent reminder daemon	X	X	X	X	X	X
Integrated workflow for meeting scheduling			X	X	X		“The full meeting life cycle should be supported via the PIM (see Meeting Maker from People Cube), e.g. making appointments and sending out invitation emails can be done within the same client as one workflow.”
Invitation emails			X	X	X
Booking resources	X	X	X	X	X		““Automatically” book conference rooms”
Attaching documents	X	X	X	X	X		“Appointments with attachments”
Free/busy display	X	X	X	X	X		“It should be possible to view all the available times from multiple users/calendars at the same time. Only the available times should be shown, not the full calendars.”
Free/busy search	X	X	X	X	X		“Scheduling meetings should not require waiting for email replies, e.g. for confirming a meeting”
Printing
Calendar views (e.g. Day, week, month)	X	X	X	X	X	X	“The printouts should look nice.”, “The printouts should make effective use of the paper space/real estate.”, “The print should not be too small.”, “Support for paper-based calendars (e.g. printing out calendars in the right format for Filofax/Franklin calendars) would be nice.”, “Printouts should include all information typically required/used, e.g. conference call numbers put into the description field”
Offline Support
Calendar data accessible without server connection	X	X	X	X	X	X	“The calendar should even be accessible/usable if the backend server is down for a few minutes.”
Synchronization upon reconnect	X	X	X	X	X
PDA Sync
Synchronization to Palm OS devices	X	X	X	X	X	X	“It has to be possible to sync Palm pilots.”
Synchronization to Windows Mobile devices	X	X	X	X	X		“PDA sync, incl. Windows-based PDA's”
Synchronization to Symbian devices	X	X	X	X	X		““gadget synchronization” (e.g. PDA's, cell phones, etc.)”
Search
Searching through all appointments	X	X	X	X	X	X	“The calendar should be very flexible in doing search.”, “It would be nice to have a search feature where you enter in an interested time and people you are interested in inviting to a meeting. The search engine would search all calendars for the interested time and come back to say how many people were available at that time.”, “The calendar should have a search feature that would allow specifying a time frame instead of searching everything. Example, if I want to search when Eugene might have a 1:1 scheduled with Jonathan in the next two months it will bring up every 1:1 they have ever had.”
Searching through all tasks	X	X	X	X	X	X
Search for event name	X	X	X	X	X	X
Search for description	X	X	X	X	X	X
Search for location	X	X	X	X	X	X
Configuration and Administration
Configuration of access rights	X	X	X	X	X		“It should be simple to set the right policies for sharing a calendar with other people.”, “The calendar tool should support team calendars for large meetings, vacations, etc.”, “It should not be required to know someone elses password to add appointments and to view calendars.”
Deputy functionality	X	X	X	X	X		“Management of access rights to a user's own inbox and folders (substitute/deputy definition), anagement of access rights to a user's own folders (substitute/deputy definition)”
Backup and restore of calendar data	X	X	X	X	X
Backup and restore of configuration data	X	X	X	X	X
Required Functionality
Accessibility	X	X	X	X	X	X
Localization	X	X	X	X	X	X
Undo/Redo	X	X	X	X	X	X
Performance	X	X	X	X	X	X	“The calendar tool should not cause unnecessary delays due to frequent window refreshs.”, “The performance of the calendar tool should be the same as dtcal.”, “The calendar has to have a 99.999% reliability since it's a mission-critical tool, i.e. the majority of an admin's daily work time is spent on calendaring.”, “The calendar client should behave fast and responsive like any typical native client.”
Documentation	X	X	X	X	X	X